The state of the art for microstructuring and/or nanostructuring of surfaces comprises mainly photolithography and various embossing techniques. The embossing techniques work either with hard or soft stamps. Recently, embossing lithography techniques have prevailed and are displacing classical photolithography techniques. Among embossing lithography techniques, the use of so-called soft stamps is becoming more and more favored. The reason is the easy manufacture of the stamps, efficient embossing processes, very good surface properties of the respective stamp materials, low costs, the reproducibility of the embossing product and the possibility of elastic deformation of the stamp during mold removal. In soft lithography, a stamp of an elastomer with a microstructured or nanostructured surface is used to produce structures in the range from 20 nm to >1000 μm.
There are six known techniques:                microcontact and/or nanocontact printing (μ/nCP)        replica molding (REM)        microtransfermolding (μTM) or nanoimprint lithography (NIL),        micromolding in capillaries (MIMIC)        solvent-assisted micromolding (SAMIM) and        phase shift lithography.        
Elastomer stamps are produced as a negative of a master. A master stamp is a hard stamp of metal or ceramic which is produced one time by correspondingly complex processes. Then any number of elastomer stamps can be produced from the master. The elastomer stamps enable conforming, uniform contact over large surfaces. They can be easily separated from their master stamp, and from the embossing products. Furthermore, elastomer stamps have low surface tension for easy and simple separation from the stamp and substrate. For automated implementation of soft lithography processes, it is necessary to support the elastomer stamp by a carrier. Currently, glass carrier substrates with different thicknesses are used. By using thick glass substrates, the elastomer stamp, however, at least partially loses its flexibility.
The use of rigid carriers makes automatic separation of the stamp and substrate after the embossing process difficult, as a result of which process automation and industrial usability of imprint lithography are only possible with difficulty.
An advantage of the present invention is a device and a method for microstructuring and/or nanostructuring with which automation and a faster process sequence can be ensured.
This advantage is achieved with the claimed features. Advantageous developments of the invention are given in the dependent claims. All combinations of at least two of the features given in the specification, the claims and/or the figures also fall within the scope of the invention. At the given value ranges, values within the indicated limits will also be considered to be disclosed as boundary values and will be claimed in any combination.